sandiego1

There are 193 countries that are members of the UN + 2 observer non-member countries. 44 of those are landlocked in addition, not every country has a port that is accessible by a larger cruise ship. I would estimate that an average world cruise could visit about 50 countries. On the HAL 2023 WC, we had ~65 ports in 128 days but several were in the same country.

Check TheInsideCabin.com or his blog on the HAL CC site. He has advice on how to submit the application.

Hope you continue to improve Diane. John is a fantastic nurse for you. I wish you were doing the P2P with us. When you are recovered fully, we’ll come up to see you. Hugs to both of u 🫶

Yes. Unless all 4 people are there simultaneously, you are a chair hog. If each person is gone for only 20 minutes at a time and the majority of the time you are all there, then no.

Looks like they upped the decor and stations since last year. Very nice. In March 2022, We were on the Zuiderdam for a short 9 day Mexico cruise and ran into Henk. I told him about a fun “Country Fair” that I had read about in a 2020 WC blog for a different cruise line. He said activities like that were easier to do on other WC ships because they were smaller, not on the Zuiderdam. So I was shocked when we had a fair on the 2023 WC! Guess he took my suggestion 😀

We loved the PG for lunch and ate there several times during the 2023 World Cruise. Dinner was good too but lunch was great. We also enjoyed Canaletto several times but the menu changed recently and I don’t like the choices.

On the Holland America CC page, there are at least 2. Also TheInsideCabin.com has several listed (including his own).

You and Judy always look like you are having the most fun! I love your spirit. I’m enjoying your blog as usual.

Pete - what app do you use to track your tour routes?

Call the WC desk and you can put a $100pp deposit on the potential Grand Asia. We did it.

Right - they didn’t announce segments while we were on the 23 WC. But there are still many cabins available. I bet they will release segments as the date gets closer. Many of the regular WC-ers said they did want to do the P2P for a variety of reasons. Too cold, too many tender ports, like the current staff/mgmt team on the typical WC… Since both the WC and P2P leave in Jan for similar long durations, I think more people will go on the WC and HAL will have to sell segments to fill the ship.

Don’t know as they don’t release the schedule more than 1-2 years out. The Pole to Pole cruise in 2025 is like a Grand SA as it circumnavigates SA and goes down the Amazon. It also heads down to Antarctica. You may be able to buy a few segments instead of the entire cruise (which includes a few stops in Northern Africa, Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and Boston).

Costco offers YF vaccines and many other travel meds through their travel doctor program. It’s not offered in every state but was a big savings for us for last year’s World Cruise. The issue with the waiver is that it’s just a piece of paper that says you are medically excused from getting the vaccines. It doesn’t save you from possibly getting YF from a mosquito as mosquitoes can’t read so they don’t know they aren’t supposed to bite you 😆

What do you mean they discontinued the other Grands? HAL had 2 Grand Africa cruises in back to back years and the Grand South America was recently completed. Friends are on the Grand Australia/New Zealand right now. There’s a rumor there will be a Grand Asia in Sep/Oct 2026. We put a deposit on it as a future cruise request. i think the only one that is missing is the Grand Med. But I believe HAL has only done that one a few times over the year (not sure how frequently or total # of times it’s been offered).

Not true. HAL doesn’t guarantee that they will hold the ship for you. There are times when the ship must leave due to tides, weather, or other factors regardless of missing tour passengers. However, in those cases HAL will organize transportation to the next port. I know of 2 recent cases where people missed the ship and had to travel to the next port. They were not happy as there was a day at sea in between the ports. They also complained that they were without their medications and change of clothing. They were also not happy with the accommodations that HAL provided for the 2 nights. So it does happen occasionally.

Thanks!! Back to packing now 🙂

Starting to pack and another question popped up. Are the cabin walls magnetic? We like to bring some hooks to be able to hang things. I prefer magnet hooks instead of Command hooks if they’ll stick to the walls.

I have done this for several world cruises. This is an acceptable strategy per my insurance broker. I purchase through another company that has participated in this forum in the past.

I suggest you just insure the deposit. As you make non refundable payments or payments towards the cruise, you can notify the insurance company and increase the insurance coverage.

On the 2023WC, we got a similar list. We were told that in addition to paying passengers, the list included people that were non paying people such as the lecturers, dancers, entertainers, arts& crafts, and others that weren’t directly employed by HAL.

@mahdnc If you don’t mind, I would like to know who you tipped in cash at the end of the cruise and how much. I don’t know how much cash to bring. Thanks in advance.

Thanks Jo!

I have been using the Windows app. But I need to do 1 photo at a time and then save it as a new jpg. I was hoping to find a tool to use that can resize all photos in a folder. I'll check out the link. Thanks for your help!

You could have called the excursion desk and left a message. Or at least try to reach them through the front desk. They could have possibly sent someone to the meeting location to inform the excursion people.

It’s very disrespectful to wait for any late comers at any point. This is another reason why we don’t do HAL excursions. It’s always hurry up and wait.